Riding Alone for Thousands of Miles

Gou-ichi Takata is a fisherman living on Japan's northwestern coast, long estranged from his son Ken-ichi. When word comes that Ken-ichi is seriously ill, Takata travels by bullet train to Tokyo, only to find that his son refuses to see him. His daughter-in-law Rie gives him a videotape her husband made during a trip to rural China, where he had been filming a local masked opera. Moved by what he sees, Takata sets out to complete that work on his son's behalf, journeying into Yunnan province and forming bonds with the villagers and a young boy there. The trip gradually changes how he understands his son and himself.

Zhang Yimou directed the film, the eleventh of the twenty-five features listed for him, following House of Flying Daggers and preceding Curse of the Golden Flower. Zou Jingzhi wrote the screenplay and Zhang Weiping produced. Ken Takakura plays Takata, with Shinobu Terajima as Rie, Kiichi Nakai as the voice of Kenichi, and supporting turns from Ken Nakamoto, Li Jia-Min and Jiang Wen. Made for about 8 million USD, it returned roughly 4 million USD worldwide.

On IMDb it holds 7.3/10 from around 5,800 votes, and on TMDB 7.1/10 from about 98 votes, while the critics' rating stands at 7.3/10 from 74 reviews, placing critical and audience responses close together.